It’s Gettin’ Missional Up in Here

One of the things I’ve been doing when not raising support or planning our move is developing a missional theology of campus ministry. 

Missional theology has been one of the most important and exciting developments in the Church over the last decade or so. The discussion has fueled a lot of Biblical reflection, innovation, and church planting. 

Surprisingly, this has not carried over to campus ministry. I base this on the fact that very few people are writing on it. In fact, if you google “Missional campus ministry,” most of the initial entries are from yours truly! I don’t say this to brag, but to demonstrate the need for some reflection on missional approaches to campus ministry. 

So I’ve been writing. It’s a reflection on what we’ve been implementing at Temple University and Philadelphia University, and what I hope to be doing at Penn State. If you head over to the Resources section here on my blog, you can find 4 articles I’ve written related to campus ministry. I’ve just posted two on “The Global University,” which ties into the discussion of Global Cities and our flat world. The first two have also been posted over at campusministry.com, where they’ve been among the most active articles on the site. I also got a request from the Catholic Campus Ministry Network (which I granted) to reprint my first article in their monthly newsletter. So that was cool. More articles to come, too. 

Feel free to check them out and let me know what you think! If you’re also a practitioner, let me know! I’d like to eventually gather other missional campus ministry folks to see what might come of it, maybe form a network of sorts. 

You Go Arlen Specter! Keep the heat on the Pats & the NFL!!

Mad props to Arlen Specter for keeping the heat on the NFL and the Patriots. He absolutely HAMMERED them yesterday. This really is remarkable. I don’t remember Tagliabue ever getting called on the carpet like this:

Sen. Arlen Specter on Wednesday called for an independent investigation of the New England Patriots‘ taping of opposing coaches’ signals, possibly similar to the high-profile Mitchell report on performance-enhancing drugs in baseball.

“I have documented the strong factual case that a NFL investigation was neither objective nor adequate,” Specter told ESPN.com on Wednesday evening. “If the commissioner doesn’t move for an independent investigation, then there will be a permanent black mark on the NFL and the Patriots’ record will be historically tainted. Depending on the public reaction, I may ask the Senate Judiciary Committee to hold hearings on the NFL antitrust exemption.”

At an earlier news conference in the Capitol, Specter put it bluntly: “What is necessary is an objective investigation. And this one has not been objective.”

The Pennsylvania Republican was unforgiving of his criticism of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, saying that Goodell has made “ridiculous” assertions that wouldn’t fly “in kindergarten.” The Senator said Goodell was caught in an “apparent conflict of interest” because the NFL doesn’t want the public to lose confidence in the league’s integrity.

“They are enormous role models for everybody,” Specter said. “If you can cheat in the NFL, you can cheat in college, you can cheat in high school, you can cheat on your grade-school math test. There’s no limit as to what you can do. I think they owe the public a lot more candor and a lot more credibility.”

In case you don’t follow these things, 3-time Super Bowl champion New England Patriots have been caught systematically cheating by taping the signals of opposing teams. This explains the huge advantage the Pats have typically had in the 3rd quarter, and likely explains why they won all 3 of their Super Bowls by 3 points each. 

After the Eagles Super Bowl, several players said it was “crazy” how the Pats seemed to know when a blitz was coming and always had the perfect play called.

The NFL is clearly embarrassed by this and wants it to go away. Despite their  best efforts, “Spygate” has cover-up written ALL OVER IT. It stinks! Specter isn’t taking NFL Commish Roger Goodell’s blatant spin at face value. He’s absolutely right to question why 1) the investigation is taking so long; 2) why it hasn’t been more in-depth, including interviewing more people; and 3) why Goodell thought it was a good idea to DESTROY the tapes in question!  And he’s absolutely right to call for an independent investigation. This is a billion dollar industry that is under-regulated compared to corporations of similar size. They get away with a lot already. Cheating when it comes to that kind of money needs a closer look. 

As far as Goodell’s claim that they’ve found all evidence of wrong-doing, PLEASE! You expect us to believe that with this much smoke, there’s not more fire? With Belichick and Kraft being as arrogant and ruthless as they are? 

You go Arlen. Don’t stop till the truth comes out. (At this point, I’ll take a retroactive Super Bowl over no Super Bowls).

Here’s the link to the articles in the New York Times  and at ESPN.